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This blog post originally appeared on my blog. “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” – Buckminster Fuller – Tyrone Johnson at the Daily Anarchist has a great article about the possibility that alternative currencies like Bitcoin provide for cutting off the war machine: As an anarchist I am against war, and I want nothing to do with it. It takes at least one government, and typically more than one, to have a war. Anarchists have never dropped nuclear bombs on cities, have not decimated populations...

This post originally appeared on my blog. “Liberty, finally, is not a box into which people are forced. Liberty is a space in which people may live. It does not tell you how they will live. It says, eternally, only that we can.” -Karl Hess, “Anarchism Without Hyphens“ – For the victims of police violence – whether while protesting or filming inside a warzone like Ferguson, or the 50,000 SWAT raids per year, or the “asset forfeiture”or the daily cobweb of regimentation – it’s hard to feel any sense of justice. The system is designed to give law enforcement officials complete...

Exposing The Blue Line has a great post on how you can avoiding paying the state's traffic-camera extortion racket: So, down to the brass tax. You've gotten a traffic camera ticket. You have received a warning from the government that because you crossed an imaginary line that you are subject to legal extortion. If you fail to pay your penance, you face imprisonment in a cage. If you still refuse to submit your will to the state deity, have no doubt, they will send someone like me and he will kill you. That $50 fine isn't sounding so bad now,...

In “Technology Can Make the Regulatory State Obsolete,” The Independent Institute’s Lawrence J. McQuillan highlights one of the many ways markets and technology are undermining the power of the state to enforce their cartelizing and coercive regulations on peaceful people. The late American inventor and futurist Buckminster Fuller said: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” Ridesharing services are trying to do this, but governments stand in the way. In a two-minute Perspective aired today on National Public Radio station KQED in San Francisco, former taxi driver Kieran...

A few years ago, Sedgwick, Maine became the first town in the US to pass a “Food Sovereignty” law, giving its citizens the right “to produce, process, sell, purchase, and consume local foods of their choosing.” This includes raw milk, locally slaughtered meats, and just about anything else you can imagine. It’s also a decided bucking of state and federal laws: This isn’t just a declaration of preference. The proposed warrant added, “It shall be unlawful for any law or regulation adopted by the state or federal government to interfere with the rights recognized by this Ordinance.” In other words, no state licensing requirements...

Thomas Paine, in "Rights of Man" writes: Great part of that order which reigns among mankind is not the effect of government. It has its origin in the principles of society and the natural constitution of man. It existed prior to government, and would exist if the formality of government was abolished. The mutual dependence and reciprocal interest which man has upon man, and all the parts of civilised community upon each other, create that great chain of connection which holds it together. The landholder, the farmer, the manufacturer, the merchant, the tradesman, and every occupation, prospers by the aid...

"Big Government and Big Business ... will try to impose social and cultural uniformity upon adults and their children. To achieve this they will (unless prevented) make use of all the mind-manipulating techniques at their disposal and will not hesitate to reinforce these methods of non-rational persuasion by economic coercion and threats of physical violence. If this kind of tyranny is to be avoided, we must begin without delay to educate ourselves and our children for freedom and self-government. Such an education for freedom should be ... first of all in facts and in values — the facts of individual...

Over at The Liberty Crier, Trevor Lyman makes a very compelling argument for the use of "massive open carry" to combat the police state: I believe that if the majority of the public were to open carry (which I would call “massive open carry”), police brutality would diminish greatly for two main reasons: 1.) More often than not the would-be victim of police brutality will be armed under these circumstances. Police are absolutely more considerate and careful when dealing with someone who is armed and who can defend themselves. This is the way all bullies behave. They prey on the weak, and in...

“The Israelis tried to dehumanise the Palestinians, just like the Nazis tried to dehumanise me. Nobody should dehumanise any other and those who try to dehumanise another are not human." - Dr Hajo Meyer, Auschwitz survivor - Israel has been bombing and terrorizing Gaza - again - for the last week. It's not the casualties or the airstrikes or the backwards media narrative or the viciousness of the attacks that struck me; as horrific as they are, spending a cold, humid afternoon reading Antiwar.com, MondoWeiss, and The Electronic Intifada can truly test one's limits of frustration and anger at the cruel...

In a time dominated by flashes of celebrity, screaming talking heads on TV, and cities that don't sleep, introverts and loners have few places to fit in. But as Laurie Helgoe argues in Psychology Today, those that are slightly uncomfortable with a noisy culture often have the biggest impact on society. Contrary to popular belief, introverts are not necessarily shy and anti-social. Introverts simply become overwhelmed by too much social engagement, tend to process more information than others and prefer quiet environments. They "seek time alone because they want it ... making them relatively immune to the search for happiness that permeates contemporary American culture." So...

"Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shouting, and doing the things historians usually record, while on the banks, unnoticed, people build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry and even whittle statues. The story of civilization is the story of what happened on the banks. Historians are pessimists because they ignore the banks for the river." -Will Durant My good friend Preston Picus and I have had many friendly and spirited discussions in the last year and a half or so about politics and philosophy. Picus is...

Spontaneous order is all around us, all we have to do is stop and notice it. Even in places as statist as the People's Republic of San Francisco. While walking slowly through the Panhandle after a good long basketball workout, I stopped to sit down on a bench to soak in the scenery as the sun woke up and its arms reached through the trees that line the park. Even more beautiful, however, was the peaceful order right in front of my eyes. The Panhandle is a small park, a strip that separates two busy streets that intersect San Francisco. Shaped like...

Joseph S. Diedrich has a great post at C4SS, called "Private Property, The Least Bad Option," arguing that libertarians tend to lionize private property rather than seeing it as an unfortunate, but necessary, reality of the world we live in. Libertarians tend to see two worlds: one with private property that works reasonably well, and one without that farcically implodes. What they often miss, however, is that this dichotomy is conditional. Private property isn’t morally meritorious or great in itself, but only insofar as it is the best and only way to avoid conflict given the reality of scarcity in the physical world....

Potential growth of an incredibly intrusive surveillance state threatening to virtually destroy the Bill of Rights and the privacy of millions of Americans, the possibility of repealing or severely scaling back a federalized Big Brother in the United States seems remote. The technology at the state's fingertips, combined with political representation which loves having their eyes on our emails, phone calls, and wallets, make the struggle for civil liberties even more daunting. Like it or not, the technology that enabled the U.S. to erect a vast network of surveillance and spy agencies is here to stay. But rather than look to Congress...

If you have survived the imminent doom of a possible government shutdown and are somehow reading this today, you might be surprised that very little has actually changed. Despite the apocalyptic rhetoric and the finger-pointing, the threats of government shutdowns are not a new occurrence in American history and actually distract from far more important fiscal and economic issues. Since 1976, there have been 17 (now 18) occasions on which there was no agreement on funding the federal government. The longest one lasted all of three weeks during the Clinton administration, without any of the dire consequences we are constantly being told...

Last year, Grammy-winning singer Lauryn Hill was released from federal prison after serving three months for tax evasion. Between 2005 and 2007, Hill did not pay any taxes on the $2 million she earned and is now serving out the rest of her sentence under home confinement as part of her guilty plea. Never one for avoiding controversy and expressing her opinion, Hill made it very known she was not pleased with her treatment. She lambasted the IRS and the system of "inequity and inequality" the justice system perpetuates. Her charity work and six children did not persuade the judge from handing down the...

This article originally appeared at PolicyMic. Whistleblowers, leakers, filibusters, photoshopping Obama, a government shutdown and more highlight a great year for the spread of liberty. 1. Edward Snowden blows the whistle on the NSA This summer, Edward Snowden made himself perhaps the most famous person of the year by leaking information about U.S. surveillance programs. In several days of interviews with the Guardian, Snowden explained, "I'm willing to sacrifice all of [my life] because I can't in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance...